A Distributed Beam Hopping Strategy With Load Balancing and Coordinated Interference Avoidance for Heterogeneous Satellite Systems

Abstract

With the rapid development of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks, the issues of spectrum resource scarcity and intersatellite interference have become increasingly prominent. Traditional fixed and centralized multibeam satellite systems suffer from a lack of flexibility and single-point failure vulnerability, making them inadequate for handling dynamically changing traffic demands. Beam hopping (BH) technology enables flexible resource allocation; however, due to the uneven distribution of ground traffic demand and its temporal variations, efficiently allocating beams remains a critical challenge. In this article, we propose a distributed load balancing and interference avoidance BH (DLBIA-BH) protocol within a distributed heterogeneous satellite network (DHSN). The core concept of DLBIA-BH is to first implement a load balancing mechanism that distributes network traffic evenly among LEO satellites. Then, each LEO satellite employs a real-time (RT) traffic-supporting BH mechanism. Finally, medium Earth orbit satellites coordinate the BH resource scheduling among LEO satellites to mitigate intersatellite interference and enhance overall network performance. Compared with benchmark methods, DLBIA-BH maximizes the overall network throughput and RT traffic throughput in DHSN while also improving the total traffic and RT traffic satisfaction rate across the network.